Teaching fractions can be challenging, but incorporating hands-on games into your lessons can make it a fun and engaging learning experience. Here are five hands-on games that can help teach fractions in the upper years.
1. Terrific Tangrams - Comparing and Adding Fractions
Tangram puzzles are perfect for a hands-on exploration of fractions! A tangram is a traditional Chinese puzzle consisting of seven flat pieces, called tans, which are put together to form a square. The shapes (five triangles, one square, and one parallelogram), can be arranged to form various shapes and figures, but can also be used to develop spacial reasoning PLUS explore fractions in a range of engaging ways!
For example, you can challenge students to use the seven pieces to create a square, and then ask them to identify what fraction of the square each piece represents. For instance, the green triangle is 1/4 of the square, OR 1/4 triangle + 1/4 tiangle = 1/2 square.
You can also ask students to create different animal shapes and identify the fraction of the shape each piece represents.
Even without a physical tangram puzzle, students could find the fractions within a printed picture of the puzzle.
2. Guess Who - Equivalent Fractions
To play this game, one student thinks of a fraction and writes it down without showing it to anyone else. The other students then ask questions to guess what the fraction is. For example, they might ask, "Is the numerator greater than the denominator?" or "Is the fraction equivalent to ½?" The student who guesses the fraction correctly gets to choose the next fraction.
3. Fraction War - Comparing Fractions
Fraction War is the perfect hands-on game for comparing fractions. Simply divide a deck of cards in half and give one half to each student. Students flip over two cards at a time, and whoever has the larger fraction gets to keep the cards. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins.
4. Super Sort - Comparing Fractions
Students draw 6 cards from a deck and arrange them to make 3 fractions. They must then plot the fractions on a number line (in ascending order). This is a great activity for reinforcing concepts such as common denominators and proper / improper factions.
5. What is the question? - Adding and Subtracting Fractions
"What is the question?" is an activity that fosters critical thinking and problem-solving skills. In this activity, provide the class with a fraction answer and ask students to come up with a question or word problem to match.
For example, if you write the fraction 3/4 on the board, students must come up with a question that would have 3/4 as the answer.
A possible question could be: "If a pizza is cut into 8 equal slices and I eat 6 of them, what fraction of the pizza is left?"
You can then ask students to share their questions and discuss how they arrived at their answers. This activity can be done individually, in pairs, or as a class, and it can be adapted to different levels of complexity.
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